# 5150 tags: #reference ![[5150 - New Beginnings (2e) (cover).jpg|600]] ![[5150 - Star Army (Total War) (cover).jpg|600]] **5150** is Two Hour Wargames' entire sci-fi universe, and that's the honest way to say it: not one game but a whole line of them sharing a single reaction engine, scaled from a lone Star living out a story in New Hope City up to fleets of warships trading broadsides across a sector. It's one of the hobby's cleanest examples of an adventure wargame and its competitive cousins living under the same roof — the same dice trick, the same races, the same solo-friendly tables, just pointed at different sized armies and different sized ambitions. ## Setting The 5150 universe is the future THW keeps coming back to: an expanse of planets and sectors, with the human world of **New Hope** and its capital **New Hope City** at the heart of the civilized middle. It's a shared sandbox, so the same population carries across every game in the line — the **Basic** humans and the alien races of **Grath**, **Hishen**, **Razor**, **Xeog**, and **Zhuh-Zhuh**, the ones you meet on the street in [[5150 - New Beginnings|New Beginnings]] and then fight for the same planets in the wargames. Different games dial different scales, but it's recognizably one galaxy. ## Mechanics Everything in 5150 runs on the same **THW Reaction System** core as [[Chain Reaction]] — the **taken-versus-Rep** 2d6 roll where each die that comes up equal to or under your Rep passes, and however many pass decides how the table turns out. The engines change scale, but the engine doesn't: the same roll drives a bar fight, a skirmish, and a fleet engagement. The **PEFs** — **Possible Enemy Forces** — are the machine that lets the whole line play solo and co-op, generating what's around the corner instead of waiting for a referee to decide. That's the 5150 signature: one mechanic, many telescopes. ## The line The useful way to read 5150 is as three poles under one brand, plus a separate sub-line. **The adventure game** — solo/co-op campaign play, one or a few characters, driven by story: - **[[5150 - New Beginnings]]** (2011 / 2021) — the flagship adventure game and the RPG-light heart of the line, played as a single **Star** in New Hope City, its supplements (Known Space, New Hope City, City Deck, Urban Renewal, Working Grave, and the rest) detailed on its own page. *Both editions in the library.* - **[[5150 - Fringe Space]]** (2015) — the other adventure-wargame: a band-driven one out on the fringe, sharing New Beginnings' profession-by-class setup but tracking progress with a **Rep d6**. *In the library.* **The wargame line** — competitive, multi-scale, from squads to fleets: - **[[5150 - Wargames]]** — the wargame pole, with **Star Army, Star Marine, Star Navy, Fighter Command, Total War, Book One, Luck of the Draw, Fleet Commander, Carrier Command, No Quarter, Hammer & Anvil, Battalion Commander, Platoon Leader, and Gaea Prime First Defense** each on their own sub-page. **The co-op bug hunt** — adventure-wargame, its own corner under 5150: - **[[5150 - Bugs]]** — the co-op **bug-hunt adventure-wargame** series, played in order: Into the Tunnels → No Retreat → Infestation → Breakout. **A separate sub-line:** - **[[5150 - No Limits]]** — a New-Hope-City solo game related to New Beginnings but its own family, not mechanically identical. That split is the line's taxonomy in miniature: **New Beginnings** and **Bugs** (and their supplements) are `adventure-wargame`s; the **wargame line** is plain `wargame` — even though, as THW loves to remind you, nearly all of it plays solo too. ## References - [5150 – Two Hour Wargames](https://www.twohourwargames.com/) - [5150 – Sci-Fi Games — Rebel Minis Press](https://rebelminispress.com/collections/sci-fi-games) - [5150 Tanks and Mechs: Total War — DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/405247/5150-Tanks-and-Mechs-Total-War)